Elon Musk had to deal with and survived a hostile power play to get him removed from Tesla after he founded and funded the company. Martin Eberhard filed suit against Tesla and Musk for slander, libel and breach of contract. Eberhard failed in his power play to be named one of the remaining two founders of Tesla.
To succeed after you have succeeded in business you have to be a Jedi master of strategic, tactical, and operational civil legal warfare. Extremely intelligent and opportunistic people will help you achieve your goals, then stick a daggar in your back, take all of your money, leave you with nothing, laugh at you, then rewrite history with you as the villan.
"Take all of your money" is really rare... the one constant in every example in the article is that the founder who is being forced out is almost always paid off.
In the one case I've been a witness too, it was the same. It's usually quite expensive to force a founder out, but that dosen't make it any less tragic.
"Extremely intelligent and opportunistic people will help you achieve your goals, then stick a daggar in your back, take all of your money, leave you with nothing, laugh at you, then rewrite history with you as the villan."
I've learned this over the past couple of years. As soon as you see the slightest bit of success, someone will try to take it from you. If you aren't defensively strategic, they will succeed.
The problem is that any hint of money brings the predators.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#Controversies
To succeed after you have succeeded in business you have to be a Jedi master of strategic, tactical, and operational civil legal warfare. Extremely intelligent and opportunistic people will help you achieve your goals, then stick a daggar in your back, take all of your money, leave you with nothing, laugh at you, then rewrite history with you as the villan.